


Laughter

by Mwuuh



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Awkward Sexual Situations, Comfort, M/M, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 16:14:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16140851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mwuuh/pseuds/Mwuuh
Summary: While Zin'jalli the troll warrior recovers from physical torture and mental trauma, his husband Karzog the orc shaman cares for him as best he can.  This includes narrating the trashy romance novels Zin'jalli likes so much.





	Laughter

It had been almost two weeks since he had discovered what had happened to his husband. It felt so much longer. Time works in strange ways when the unexpected happens, and it never feels like it's in your favour. The weeks felt like months; the days felt longer.

While the recovery process had been surprisingly short, it felt like a year had passed. To Karzog, the time it took between discovering Zin'jalli's seemingly lifeless body, and discovering that he was still alive, seemed like an eternity. The time it took to get him to the Spire felt like a week. The time it took for his body to fully grow back felt like several months.

Yet, after finally being allowed to take Zin'jalli home with him just less than a week ago, it felt like no time had passed at all. Nothing had happened. This was another normal day, and nothing traumatic had happened to either of them. Zin'jalli's skin colour was his regular dark blue hue, not disturbed by white discolouration here and there. His breathing was calm and relaxed, not heavy and audible. His general attitude was that of a loving husband, a joker, a romantic, and not a catatonic shell of a person lying in Karzog's lap in the living room sofa.

Facing the truth when the truth is unwelcome, was difficult.

Thanks to Magistrix Gosa's quick thinking, Zin'jalli had been able to cling to the idea that he was, in fact, in the real world, and not in the fabrication of a sadistic magic wielder, by using the simple concept of books; no matter how skilled an illusionist happened to be, nobody could conjure up entire books just like that, and they could definitely not keep constant track on which pages each chapter, each word, and each letter were. Some days were better than others. Occasionally it seemed impossible for Karzog's husband to even consider the idea that everything around him was real.

Here and now, as Karzog occupied his designated seat in their sofa, stroking Zin'jalli's hair absent-mindedly, Zin'jalli didn't even have the energy to read anything at all, much less pick up a book and hold it in his hands.

It was a new experience, reading a book out loud to someone. Karzog had always envisioned that he'd do so for a child. Narrating a sweet little story for a tired child was one thing. It was another thing entirely to narrate over-the-top romantic novels for your traumatised husband.

"... 'Maali had never experienced this act of love before, and she gasped as her beloved Ulfric kissed the sensitive flower between her legs. As the night went on, she truly felt like she had blossomed.'"

Karzog paused for a moment, reconsidering just how much trash he was willing to go through just to keep Zin'jalli happy. He didn't remember where this book was obtained, but it was absolute fucking garbage.

The descriptions of sex in these books were so stupidly romantic. Granted, Zin'jalli enjoyed them a whole lot, but Karzog couldn't get past the first chapter of most of them. Sex wasn't like this in real life, and it was silly to convince yourself otherwise. There was no "blossoming" of the "flower between your legs." There were sweaty grunts and sloppy kisses, happy giggling and beating hearts, the occasional mistakes that were funny only in hindsight...

"You remember that time I was so incredibly tired but I wanted to please you anyway, and I fell asleep with my face between your legs? There wasn't much blossoming going on then, that's for sure."

He wasn't expecting any reply. Zin'jalli had been mute that entire morning, and Karzog expected it to go on for the rest of the day. It was only when he noticed his husband's body shaking that he realised that Zin'jalli was laughing.

First there was no sound whatsoever. It gradually turned to wheezing, and then the vocal chords decided to work. Zin'jalli was laughing. He was smiling. His eyes were lit, with humour and delight at the mention of the memory. He laughed long and hard enough for tears to roll down his face, and Karzog noticed that he, too, was crying, but for a very different reason.

His heart almost broke out of his rib cage when Zin'jalli rolled over and looked up at him, still smiling. Their eyes met. Zin'jalli's gaze was fixed, and not the blank stare it had been for so long. It would take Karzog some time to get used to that creepy, white eye, but to be able to see and hear his husband laughing like this, he'd be willing to get accustomed to anything, even shitty romance novels.

"I realised something was off," Zin'jalli said, his voice hoarse with disuse, "just a second before I heard you snore." His smile was wide and bright. He looked absolutely delighted. "It made me laugh, which woke you up. The look on your face when you realised what had happened made me laugh even harder."

Trying his best not to let his emotions break his voice, Karzog laughed breathlessly. "I was so embarrassed. I apologised so many times."

The smile on Zin'jalli's face was comforting, understanding. There was something amazingly calming about looking at your soulmate as they smiled up at you with their head in your lap. Even when they were laughing at something embarrassing you did during sex.

"Well." Something playful flashed in Zin'jalli's eyes. "You weren't the one with come coming out your nose."

Karzog howled with laughter, which sent his husband into a giggle fit.

"I still don't understand how that happened!" Karzog exclaimed once he'd caught his breath. "Nothing out of the ordinary happened, and suddenly I look down at you, and you have a huge gob of semen dripping from your nose, and you're looking at me, all panicked, saying 'help me!'"

"It was the only thing I could think of saying!" Zin'jalli protested through his giggles. "And you laughed so hard that you were no help at all, so I had to help myself!"

"You spent the rest of that night blowing your nose."

"It was disgusting."

They looked at each other with fondness for a few moments, before Karzog realised, to his horror, that the light in Zin'jalli's eyes was extinguishing again. Despite feeling like his heart shattered into several thousands of pieces, he managed to not look too disappointed as his husband's gaze dropped and his smile faded slowly until he returned to looking like the lifeless husk he'd been for the last two weeks.

Stroking his husband's cheek gently with his thumb, Karzog smiled down at him. "Take your time, honey. There's no rush. This was probably exhausting. I'm proud of you."

He might just have imagined the faint twitching of Zin'jalli's lips.

"Now," Karzog continued, clearing his throat. "Let's find out if Maali and Ulfric manage to embarrass themselves in hilarious manners the same way we do."

There was no response. As expected.

It hurt, seeing him so unresponsive. Karzog had found himself on several occasions clutching his own chest as a futile attempt to make it stop hurting. Still, it was worth it. If it meant that Zin'jalli would resurface, Karzog would willingly let himself ache over and over, just to keep his husband afloat.

**Author's Note:**

> The embarrassing sex moments were straight up taken from an AskReddit thread. I wish I had saved the link so I could give proper credit.


End file.
